I agree it should depend on personal needs/tendencies.
I don't know a great deal on this, although I did ask the dentist who worked on my son about them. His opinion was that he was not "a big fan" of them. His main concern, as I understood it, was the possibility that they would eventually erode/unadhere and allow bacteria to get underneath, making for an even greater risk of decay.
The other concern I would have is the suggestion that the synthetic estrogens in the material might have some long-term effect (and yes, I know they are virtually everywhere in our modern world, and considered bad news by many!) probably better than fillings(esp. mercury ones), but ideal? I don't know.
I would have to have compelling reason to allow it, such as a serious problem with decay/family history (and DH and I DO have a history of terrible teeth, but our kids seem to be more fortunate; don't know where they got their genes, lol! But then, our son has always spoken with what many have pegged as a northeastern accent (New Hampshire, Mass. are the 2 most common verdicts and we are both 3rd or more generation Texans, he was born and raised for 8 yrs in Oregon, so I have no clue!!! One of his first words was "bird" (sounded like "buud"). "Horse" was "hehse". etc. Maybe he is a "lost Kennedy", lol!

God bless the dentist who introduced me to sealants 14 years ago. Any of my molars that don't have sealants, have some sort of filling in them (despite fluoride and good dental habits). I must have those fissured teeth. I still have my wisdom teeth. One has a filling. The others have sealants.
It's good to know that they have less plastic than the actual fillings.

My ds is 3 1/2 years old. When his teeth came in, some were malformed with little or no enamel. At 18 months he underwent GA for some caps and fillings. Since then, we have had 4 molars come in. Despite monthly visits to the dentist for "painting" on fluoride, brushing ect. we have cavities again.
On 3 teeth, two of which had small cavities, our dentist put sealants. He said that studies have shown that once sealants are put on, that the decay of such small cavities stops and they are no longer a problem. Is that true?
One of the teeth has a cavity bad enough that he feels it should be taken care of at least in the next month or so. (if it were his child, he'd do it sooner) He plans on using demerol, phenegan (spelled wrong) for vomiting and nitrous oxide during the procedure.
Normally, he uses a pappoose board but said that if we wished, he would not. However, once he starts the procedure, he has to finish and that may mean our holding ds down if he becomes uncooperative or upset. Does that sound right? Obviously this concerns me alot. I really don't know how ds will react to this. Dentist assured me that it is rougher on the parents as demerol is an amnesiac and the children don't remember.
I had demerol when I gave birth to ds, and I remember.
We move back to the states late June, but for now I really feel this guy is our only option. Really, up to now, he has been pretty good with ds, but this is a different situation and I am concerned.
I don't want this to be traumatic for my son, (or me) but I do want to do what is best for him. What do you think? Thanks.

Teresa ~ I don't know if this will help at all, but my ds loves to listen to stories on tape. Maybe you could take a walkman (ds has his own children's tape player) and some favorite stories on tape. You could even record some of his fav. books on tape. When I finally take ds to the dentist I think I'll bring along his tape player. Good luck, Ashlea

my son had his first visit to the dentist and was told that he has the beginnings of a cavity in his molars and they want to use a sealant to coat the teeth to prevent any future decay.what is sealant composed of? any toxic materials? are they needed for first teeth? he was breast fed for 3yrs.,never had floridated vitamins or toothpaste. i'm worried should we start using floride toothpaste? thanks for any info.

Hi there, I'm so sorry your little one has a dental problem, I know what it's like to be worrying about these things. I also know how busy smilemomma is, so I thought I might butt in to help as I have been reading a lot here in the last year and a half that we have been dealing with a myriad of dental problems in our three year old dd. If you do a search on sealants a thread comes up posted by Sherri that I think is titled "something happened to my thread on sealants?" I attempted to just copy and paste the contents of it here for you, but for some reason it will not let me paste it here: (Anyone out there know why?)
In any case, smilemomma discusses that she thinks these are "wonderful," and the amount of plastic is miniscule and does not seem to be of risk to child's health, etc. Anyway, I'll stop trying to quote her and just let you read it yourself. I will add that we just completed putting sealants on every crevice in our dd mouth. After much research and after what she has gone through in the last year, my dh and I felt it was the appropriate and best course of action for her. I really wanted something preventative instead of showing up every few weeks with a new problem that needed invasive correction. Of course, you must do what you are comfortable with. As for the fluoride question, I'll let someone else run with that ball. I think if you do a search on fluoride you will come up with a ton of info, offering a variety of pros and cons. My personal feeling (again this is based on what we have been through) is that I may not have started it soon enough. I go back and forth on this and wonder what I should do when/if number two ever comes along. These things are not always that easy to answer, are they? I hope this can get taken care of quickly for you, and maybe with the preventative sealants it will be the first and the last of dental work for your little one for a long time! Good luck and happy reading...sorry this got so long!

My dentist is pushing me to have sealants put on all my thirteen year old's molars. I did have a few done a couple years ago, but now I am wondering how effective and safe they really are. He's had no dental problems so far, takes quite good care of his teeth, and will not need orthodontia. I'm willing to spend the money if you think it's really worth it, but I wonder because she told me that one needs to be "redone". Why is that? How effective is it if they need to be redone within a couple years? Can any harm come to him from this process (like we found out about mercury fillings?!) or having this chemical in his mouth?

In no great rush, when you get around to it, but would like to know your thoughts on this.

Thanks, Smilemomma. I found the thread and now am wondering, how do I recognize a dentist who knows what she/he is doing with sealants? Should I be concerned about the dentist who put a few in my son's mouth and now says one is wearing away (sealant is not more than four years old)?

I remember reading in my web wanderings a woman who said her dentist had covered her child's very tiny cavities with sealant and then watched them for more decay, rather than just filling them right away.

Any thoughts on this? My son has soft spots on two different teeth and the dentist wanted to fill them. They are molars and they are in between the teeth so I know that is a tough spot to keep clean. The dentist was quite scandalized at the suggestion of sealing them, but I don't see the harm if we watch them closely...can't they just scrape the sealant off to fill them if they do indeed get worse?

My other son has two very tiny cavities in the grooves of his teeth. I have been watching these for over six months now and they haven't changed. I would like to avoid filling them if possible, since he is the one with the corn intolerance and sedation is very tricky if not impossible. I would like to put sealants on all his molars, but obviously the dentist doesn't want to do this until after he's filled the cavities.

I made a stupid mistake the other day; my son, the 4.5 yo who has several food intolerances, got sealants put on his teeth and I didn't even THINK to find out what the ingredients were until we were in the van on the way home! (What an awful sinking feeling that was.) My son has been having some reactions; I'm hoping they are just due to the application and that he won't continue to be exposed to anything due to the sealants!

I called him today and asked but they have yet to get back to me. I will call again tomorrow morning, but, as pleased as I am with this dentist, he is totally clueless about the food intolerances and seems quite confused about it all. I'm afraid I'll never get the answers I need just due to his ignorance!

I was able to find one reference online that said that one particular brand contained ethyl alcohol; I know that that is made from corn (which my son reacts to). I don't know what brand he used, though, and I can't find anything online that lists inert ingredients, too.

Obviously there's not much you can tell me since I don't even know what brand was used but if you could give me your opinion about whether or not the sealants could continue to affect him, I'd really appreciate it. TIA,

Hi everyone, I am hoping someone can give me some insight here. I recently took my 6 and 9 yo daughters to the dentist, and they would like to put sealants on my children's permanent molars. My 6yo has never had a cavity, my 9yo had her first two (hopefully her ONLY) cavities this last visit.

Are dental sealants safe?

I also have a 2yo son, I am wondering when we take him in if they will want to do his baby molars. He is a breastfed/night nursed baby, as were the older girls.

My dentist recommended sealing my dd's teeth. She is seven, and has deep crevices (like me) in her teeth. Our diet is good, not much sugar, no pop at all, lots of whole grains, fruits and veggies. My kids brush twice a day, and at least once a day chew Xylitol gum. Neither my youngest (4) nor my oldest has ever had a cavity. I myself had my first filling this year, at the age of 30. A dark spot we had been watching for 3-5 years finally got too dark for my docs comfort.

I know that most cavities are caused by a specific bacteria, and I also know that it appears to have a hereditary factor--if your family has lots of cavities, you probably will too. Well, my dh has a mouthful (though none since adulthood) and I have one. I wonder if, between our relatively good eating habits and my apparently good resistence to S. mutans if we should have it done.

There is definately a cost factor to my hesitancy...while we have dental insurance, it sucks and we will still owe hundreds of dollars if we do this. Also, I am hesitant to put anything artificial in her mouth, and this is my main reason for hesitancy. 40 years ago, mercury fillings were considered fantastic...now we are only beginning to know how they have harmed humans and the environment. What about the polymer that I am supposed to seal her teeth with? It won't bond permanently with her teeth...what are the side effects of this slow leeching exposure to this? On the other hand, what if I don't do this, and she does indeed develop cavities later, and will have to have more invasive procedures and implants/sealants anyhow?

Does anyone have any input for me? Anyone dealt with this before? Thoughts? Comments?

So, our insurance doesn't cover the awesome dentist we'd been going to for years. We went to the new dentist today. They insisted on flouride treatments and that we make appts. for the kids to get sealants on their teeth. My old dentist was very homeopathic and didn't do these things. Should I allow this? Is it safe? Thanks!

Amy - Blessed wife to Jesse(the best dad in the world), mother of 10 on earth plus 8 in heaven. PROUD to be a Catholic! :

Of course you shouldn't be pushed into doing something you aren't comfortable with by any dentist.............with that said..

My take on this is that I WISH I had been given sealants and a little floride, when I was a child. I grew up in the country drinking well water- no floride- and no treatments or sealants........well now at 29, I have teeth problems you wouldn't believe.
Several dentists- in Boston- a few years back ,were amazed that my teeth were in as bad shape as they were for someone as young as I am.

Well, I had to chime in and say I grew up with flouride treatments and regular dental visits and my teeth are horrible. I do not allow dental treatments for my DD and the Dentist was mad when I said no way and I said my reason was "I am her Mother, I have read up on flouride and feel she shouldn't have them." And they backed off. I am not an expert but their is a such thing as dental flourosis, which is where the teeth are ruined from too much flouride...

Fluoride is toxic waste and not safe for anyone. It is a bi product of toxic waste. you see, these people made a product, had to dispose of the toxic waste. Soon it became more expensive to dispose of waste and they weren't making enough selling product. Some tests later they discovered it might help teeth! Next everyone puts it in drinking water! people's teeth rot.. people get osteoporosis.. other countries stop using it! US puts it in everything from bottled water to toothpaste.. still toxic waste.

My ds is only 6, so I guess I can't say I know about long term issues, but he doesn't use flouride toothpaste, and I refused the sealants. He will be 7 next week, and has never had a cavity. My dentist who is very natural in most ways does like to do the sealants. He feels that they are safe because they are so tightly bonded to the teeth. I just can't bring myself to use it. . .and if he doesn't have problems with lots of cavities, can't find a reason to.

Brandonsmama, with all respect, do you really want him to have "problems with lots of cavities"? The whole idea behind sealants is to prevent those problems from happening, closing the barn door *before* the horses get out, so to speak. Waiting until there are problems just tells you, ooops, shoulda got the sealants. It's too late then. And it's a lot suckier than sealants, for sure!

My latest analogy on it is "bring on the bacon double cheeseburgers, I haven't had enough heart attacks yet!" :LOL

No pressure, for sure, you are his mom and you have made your decision, just had to point out the flaw in the reasoning in case someone else reads and thinks, "yeah, haven't had any cavities, so why seal?" I totally don't mean to be obnoxious and hope it isn't perceived that way!

No offense taken Smilemama. I guess what I really meant is. . .Since he has no cavities yet, I feel reassured that not having sealants is the best decision for us right now. I have read, however, some difference in opinions as to how much fluoride really helps teeth. I would never tell someone else what to do, just need to feel comfortable with whatever I put into his system. If he got more than one cavity, I would try to research the subject again, and make my decision based on what we were dealing with at that time.